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Performance analysis of neural network and fuzzy logic based MPPT techniques
for solar PV systems

Article · June 2015

DOI: 10.1109/34084POWERI.2014.7117722

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Performance Analysis of Neural Network and Fuzzy
Logic Based MPPT Techniques for Solar PV Systems
Ankit Gupta, Pawan Kumar, Rupendra Kumar Pachauri, Yogesh K. Chauhan
Electrical Engineering Department, School of Engineering Gautam Buddha University
Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh (India) – 201308
guptaankit299@gmail.com, pawanthakurgrano@gmail.com, rupendra@gbu.ac.in, yogesh@gbu.ac.in

Abstract— The maximum power point tracking (MPPT) double diode PV system etc. Also, various MPPT techniques
technique in the photovoltaic (PV) system is used to achieve like Incremental Conductance (IC), Perturb & Observe (P&O),
maximum power through the solar PV system. Therefore, the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Fuzzy Logic Controller
interest is generated to design a more effective and efficient (FLC), etc. are implemented. But comparative analysis is not
MPPT to achieve maximum power transfer to the load. In this
context, two MPPT techniques, i.e. artificial neural network
discussed between different advanced MPPT techniques
(ANN) and fuzzy logic control (FLC) are implemented and their specially ANN & FLC. With the motivation of above literature
performance is analysed. Both the MPPT techniques are review, in this paper an analysis of two intelligent MPPT
investigated in terms of efficiency and response and they are techniques, i.e. Artificial Neural Network and Fuzzy logic is
developed in MATLAB/Simulink environment. Their implemented and efficiency is obtained for both cases.
performance is investigated under variable irradiation conditions
and found satisfactory for both the techniques. II. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
The complete system is divided into three major parts (a)
Keywords— Maximum power point tracking (MPPT), Electrical power generating Solar PV system (b) Power
Photovoltaic (PV) system, Neural network, Fuzzy logic, DC/DC electronics interface DC/DC boost converter (c) MPPT
Boost converter techniques (i) Artificial neural network (ii) Fuzzy logic
controller. The schematic diagram of the complete system is
I. INTRODUCTION shown in the Fig. 1 as,
The consumption of electrical energy is continuously
increasing all over the world due to exponentially growing
global energy demand. The energy generation is totally I PV IL
dependent on fossil fuels. The alternative energy sources are
renewable energy sources such as wind turbine (WT), solar PV
system, Bio fuel cell (FC) and mini hydro power generation etc.
Now-a-days, renewable energy sources are more popular due VPV VLD
to various advantages such as, pollution free, easy availability
and economic [1-2].
A PV system directly converts solar energy into electricity.
However, due to its low energy conversion efficiency of (30-
40%) and a high installation cost, this technology is widely
accepted today and also it has a large area of competition S1
compared to other conventional energy sources. Therefore,
many researchers have been focusing to minimize these S2
drawbacks and increase the PV system efficiency [2]. This
method is commonly named as a maximum power point
tracking (MPPT) technique. The main function of MPPT Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of MPPT assisted PV system.
technique is to achieve maximum power from a PV system [3].
The present paper is organized as follows. In Section III,
In this direction, previous researchers have concentrated on
solar PV system configuration is described. In Section IV,
many different MPPT techniques. They focused on efficiency,
MPPT techniques are implemented. In Section V, power
complexity, speed, cost and range of effectiveness of the
electronics interface is discussed. The results and discussion
system [4]. Recently, artificial intelligence based MPPT such
are presented in Section VI & Section VII of this paper.
as neural network and fuzzy logic MPPT techniques are used
for this purpose [5]. III. SOLAR PV SYSTEM MODELING
Authors in [1-5], discussed about the design and modeling
The modeling of the proposed system can be divided into
of a PV array and various MPPT techniques. Authors have
two key parts: modeling of the photovoltaic array and DC/DC
proposed different kinds of solar PV systems, i.e. single &
boost converter.

978-1-4799-6042-2/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE

A. Solar PV system present application artificial neural network and fuzzy logic
The design of the PV model can be designed by focussing based MPPT techniques are proposed and discussed.
on its electrical equivalent circuit. Hence, the electric circuit
of a single PV cell is shown in Fig. 2. In this paper, a double A. Neural Network based MPPT Controller
diode pv equivalent circuit is used.
Ic Many developments are made in the field of neural
network controllers. The environmental parameters e.g.
irradiation (SX) and temperature (T) are applied to ANN as
I D1 ID2 Rs input parameters. At the output stage a duty cycle is generated
for a DC/DC boost converter which drives the PV voltage to
I ph D1 D2 Rp VC optimal voltage [8]. The schematic diagram of the proposed
MPPT system is shown in Fig. 3 as,

Fig. 2 Equivalent circuit of pv cell.

The output voltage of a solar pv cell can be expressed as,

AkTC § I ph + I D1 + I D 2 - I C · § Rs × R p ·
Vcell = ln ¨ ¸ - I C ¨¨ ¸¸ (1)
e © I D1 + I D 2 ¹ © Rs + R p ¹
Conceptually, in order to form a PV array, a number of PV
cells are connected in series and parallel.
The solar cell operating temperature TC varies as a
function of solar irradiation level SC and ambient temperature
TA affects the cell voltage VC and cell output current IC. These
effects are also implemented in the model by using the
temperature coefficients CTV and CTI for cell voltage and cell
photo current respectively using Eq. (2) & (3) as,
Fig. 3 Schematic diagram of proposed MPPT system.
CTV = 1 + β ( Ta - Tx ) (2)
γT The input layer receives an input data, second layer and
CTI = 1 + (Tx - Ta ) (3) hidden layer contains several hidden neurons which receive
Sc
The effect of change in irradiation level (SX) on the voltage data from an input layer and send them to the third layer. Third
and current of PV system can be expressed by using the layer provides output to the system. The input and output are
constants, CSV and CSI, which are the correction factors for expressed in Eq. (8)-(9) as,
changes in cell voltage VC and photo current Iph. These are § N ·
expressed in Eq. (4) & (5) as, ¨ ¦
y hj = f ¨ W ji X i + θ hj ¸ 
© i −1
¸
¹
(8)
CSV = 1 + βT α S ( S x - Sc ) (4)
§ Nh ·
CSI = 1 +
1
Sc
( S x - Sc ) (5) yko = f ¨
¨ ¦W Y h
kj j + θ ko ¸ 
¸
(9)
© j =1 ¹
Where, SC is the reference solar irradiation and SX is new
irradiation level at operating condition. Using the correction B. Fuzzy Logic based MPPT Controller
factors, CTV ,CTI, CSV and CSI, new values of the cell voltage Recently, FLC are introduced for MPPT in the PV system.
VCX and photocurrent IPhx are given by Eq. (6) & (7) as, These controllers are robust and advantageous as in their
Vcx = CTV CSV VC (6) design procedure exact model information is not required. [9].
I phx = CTI CSI I ph (7) The main parts of a fuzzy logic controller are fuzzification,
inference, rule base and defuzzification, are shown in Fig. 4 as,
IV. MPPT CONTROL STRATEGIES
As discussed earlier, the maximum power point of the
system varies with changing conditions. Therefore, the use of
MPPT techniques is very essential to extract maximum power
of the PV system. In recent years, intelligent methods are
adopted because of their reasoning, flexibility and ability to
deal with the non-linear and complex system [7]. Hence, in
Fig. 4 Block diagram of Fuzzy Controller.
The two inputs i.e. change of error (CE) and error (E) are equations obtained by direct application of KCL and KVL to
defined as, the circuit in Fig. 3 as.
PPV ( k ) − PPV (k − 1) dI L
E (k ) = (10) L = VPV − VL (14)
VPV ( k ) − VPV ( k − 1) dt
CE ( k ) = E ( k ) − E (k − 1) (11) dV V
C PV = I L − L (15)
Where, PPV is the instantaneous power of PV array fuzzy dt R
inference is processed using Mamdani’s method [10]. where, IL the is DC/DC output current. The operating
Defuzzification uses the center of gravity to process output parameters used in this paper are given in Appendix.
which is the duty cycle [11].
n VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
¦ μ (D ) − D j j The designed system was simulated in the
j =1
D= (12) MATLAB/Simulink environment. The parameters of the
n
developed photovoltaic array are shown in Table II.
¦ μ (D ) j
TABLE II
j =1

The fuzzy rule base used in this paper [12], is given in Table I PV ARRAY PARAMETERS AT STC (T = 25 °C AND SX = 1 KW/M2).
as,
TABLE I
FUZZY RULE BASE FOR FLC.

The output power of a solar PV system depend on solar

irradiation and temperature. The typical P-V and V-I
characteristics at different irradiation (SX) and temperature (T)
are shown in Fig. 6 (a)-(d) as,
1000
Sx=1000 W/m2
900
Sx=800 W/m2
800
Sx=600 W/m2
V. POWER ELECTRONICS INTERFACE 700
Power (Watt)

Sx=400 W/m2
A. Boost Converter Model 600
500

As mentioned above, a DC/DC boost converter is placed 400

between the PV array and load stage to vary the output 300

voltage of the PV array to the maximum power point which is 200

calculated by the fuzzy logic or the neural network controller. 100

From Fig. 5, by considering the steady state operation, the 0

0 50 100 150 200 250 300
transfer function of the boost converter can be expressed as, Voltage (Volt)
Vout = αVPV (13) (a)
Where, Į is the duty cycle used by converter control, Vout is 1000
Temp=55 °C
the output voltage and VPV is the PV array output voltage. Temp=30 °C
L D 800
Temp=45 °C
I PV IL
Temp=15 °C
Power(W)

600
IC
T C RL VL 400
VPV

200

Fig. 5 Equivalent circuit of a boost converter. 0

0 50 100 150 200 250 300
The relation between the input and output of the boost Voltage(V)
converter can be expressed with the help of differential (b)
 7 1200
S =400 W/m2
x
6 S =600 W/m2
x 1100
S =800 W/m2
x
5 1000

Power (Watt)
Current (Amp)

S =1000 W/m2
x

4 900

3 800

2 700

1 600

0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3
Voltage (Volt) Time (Sec)
(c)
(c)
7
Temp= 15 °C Fig. 7 (a)-(c) Output voltage, current and power of PV system.
6 Temp= 30 °C
Temp= 45 °C
5 Temp= 55 °C In design procedure of ANN based MPPT controller, solar
Current (Amp)

4
radiation (SX) and ambient temperature (Tamb) are considered
as inputs. A data set is provided for training of the network
3
and after training it can be concluded that once a neural
2 network is trained, then it can be used to accurately measure
1
optimal voltage for the system at any random set of data
which is not used for training. The training results of designed
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 ANN are shown in Fig. 8 as,
Voltage (Volt)
(d) Best Training Performance is 0.0007932 at epoch 1483
5
10
Fig 6 (a)-(d). P-V and I-V characteristics of PV array on different Train
M e a n S q u a re d E rro r (m s e )

environmental conditions.. 3 Test

10 Best
The output voltage, current and power of the designed PV
array are shown in Fig. 7 as.
240 0
10

220
Voltage (Volt)

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400

Epochs
200
(a)

180

0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3

Time (Sec)
(a)
4.6

4.4
Current (A)

4.2
(b)
4 Fig. 8 (a)-(b) Training Performance and Response graph for test data of ANN.

3.8
For the fuzzy logic controller designing, the inputs are
error (E) and change of error (CE) in parameters (voltage and
current) of the solar PV system and output is the duty cycle.
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 This generated duty cycle (D) targets the DC/DC converter to
Time (Sec) the optimal voltage. The membership functions for both inputs
(b) and output are shown in Fig. 9 as,
 In order to study the dynamic response of ANN & FLC the
designed MPPT techniques, the predefined varying irradiation
and fixed ambient temperature (25 °C) are considered as input
to the PV array. As seen in Fig. 11 (a), the solar irradiation
varies in the range of 600 to 1100 W/m2. The comparison of
output voltage, current and power of both MPPT techniques
are shown in Fig. (b)- (d). From the results shown in Fig. 11
(b)-(d), the dynamic response can be observed easily. The
obtained results show that the performance and efficiency of
the ANN is better in comparison of FLC based MPPT
technique.
(a)

1100 Irradiation

Irradiation (W/m2)
1000

900

800

700

600
(b) 1 2 3 4 5 6
Time (Sec)

(a)

350
ANN
300 FLC
Voltage (Volt)

250

200
(c)
Fig. 9 (a)-(c) Membership function of fuzzy logic controller. 150

The view of a control surface for the duty cycle (D) for the
fuzzy logic controller is shown in Fig. 10 as, 1 2 3 4 5 6
Time (Sec)

(b)

6.5
ANN
6 FLC
5.5
Current (A)

4.5

3.5

1 2 3 4 5 6
Fig. 10 Surface view of the FL controller.
Time (Sec)
(c)
 Cell output current, (IC) 5A
1800 ANN
FLC
Cell photovoltaic current, (IPH) 4.2 A
1600 Reverse saturation current of diode D1, 2 × 10-6 A
(ID1)
Power (Watt)

1400
Reverse saturation current of diode D2, 2 × 10-6 A
1200
(ID2)
1000 Cell output voltage, (VC) 208 V
800
Series resistance of cell, (RS) 10-3 Ÿ
Parallel resistance of cell, (RP) 103 Ÿ
600
Ambient temperature 25 °C
1 2 3 4 5 6 Reference solar irradiation, (SC) 1000 kw/m2
Time (Sec) DC-DC Boost Converter
(d) Resistance, (R) 0.2 Ÿ
Fig. 11 (a)-(d) Performance of ANN and FLC based MPPT technique. Inductance, (L) 600 × 10-7 H
Capacitance, (C) 7500 × 10-5 F
Finally, from Fig. 11, it can be observed that ANN has a
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